Daniel Haggett

London based Lighting Cameraman / DoP

Around this time every year, Televisual do a survery to work out what salaries and day rates people get working in the television industry in the UK. Here are the results for this year's survery for camera operators:

Indie TV production, camera operator: £29,250

Broadcaster, camera operator: £31,125

Facilities (OB, studio etc) camera operator: £39,250

Corporate production, camera operator £38,006

These salaries strike me as pretty low, so it is worth considering the same Televisual survey from the previous year. This year's survey only had the one job title of "camera operator", whereas last year's survey had camera operator and DOP, however, they didn't split the industry into fields (such as indie/broadcaster/corporate etc). The results for these in 2012 were as follows:

Camera operator: £36,113

DOP: £63,631

Looking at earnings as averages is obviously tricky for a career like that of a camera operator or DOP as there are huge variables, as proof of this, in the Televisual video from 2012 they also mention a DOP from their survey with a salary of £200,000. The main variables are the kind of work you do, and the kit you own. A busy DOP working on commercials is obviously going to earn a lot more than a cameraman just starting out, shooting small corporate jobs.

Working as an owner operator with kit, is more like running a small business, with larger risks and more variable earnings. If you make the right decisions and buy the right kit, you are likely to make far more than the average OB or studio cameraman whose day rate can only go so high. Equally, make the wrong decisions and buy kit that you can't get on jobs and you could even make a loss.